By JULIE SALAMON

Published: December 11, 2002

Who is Kola Boof?

She might be, as she claims, the object of a fatwa ordering her death because of her vehement criticism of the Muslim government in her native Sudan. Or she might be, as some have suggested, an author trying to bring attention to her books by fabricating a provocative public persona, using the specter of fatwa as a marketing ploy.

Either way, the Kola Boof story demonstrates how flashpoints are reached in cyberspace, the new forum for underground literature and politics, where fact and myth become indistinguishable and publicity campaigns become a kind of performance art. Without the imprimatur of a major publisher or a mainstream review or a public appearance, she has managed to instigate anger and discussion about her work.

Ms. Boof said a fatwa was ordered up on her in London for her stand against organized religion, but particularly against Arab Muslims. Sudanese officials in London, however, said that was not true. One of those officials did denounce her in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a leading Arab-language newspaper in the United Kingdom. A number of well-known African-American activists have taken up her causes, which include her opposition to slavery in the Sudan and her condemnation of stoning and female castration and other harsh measures taken against African women.

They include Derrick Bell, the New York University law professor and author of several books, most recently ''Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth,'' and Joe Madison, the Washington radio personality who for 14 years was on the board of the N.A.A.C.P. The attention has translated into sales. ''Long Train to the Redeeming Sin'' (North African Book Exchange), her collection of earthy and impressionistic stories about racial identity, has been selling briskly on AALBC.com, an online service that specializes in books for African-Americans, but is by no means a best seller.

Ms. Boof's Web site appeared on the Internet a few months ago, presenting her as a mysterious but alluring figure, whose life provided a potent brew of international politics, diplomatic and sexual -- part Graham Greene, part Jacqueline Susann. Among other things, she claims she briefly was Osama bin Laden's mistress, in the late 1990's.

More often, in subsequent postings and interviews, she invokes the memory of her father, an Egyptian archaeologist, and her mother, a Somali nomad. Ms. Boof said they were killed in front of her in Sudan, where the family was then living, and that her given name was Naima Bahri. Sometimes she says she was 10 or 12, sometimes 8. After that, she said she was adopted by an African-American family in Washington, whose names she won't reveal.

Her startling author photograph for ''Long Train,'' in which she poses defiant and naked from the waist up, has become the subject of much lewd Internet chat. Ms. Boof said she wanted to discredit the notion that breasts were sexual objects and to celebrate the nakedness of African women. She has deplored the influence of Western culture on African women, and certainly, ''Long Train'' presents a bleak and angry vision of their lives.

Soon she was being touted on radio programs as an advocate for the cause of southern Sudan in the 20-year civil war between the Arab-dominated government in the north and the subjugated black African south. She says she was born Muslim, but has since rejected organized religion. In a statement posted on the Web, she says, ''For just as Harvard University is an institution created by men so is every religion.''

Now newspapers have begun associating her name with fatwa in diverse outlets like Pravda, The Village Voice, The Washington Times and The New York Post.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, representing the non-Muslim faction in the civil war, embraced her and then backed away, as Ms. Boof's personal, if not literary, credentials have been called into question. They may be more cautious, too, since the Sudan Peace Act was signed by President Bush on Oct. 21, which authorizes $300 million in aid to the south and requires the two sides to negotiate in good faith.

''Her writing speaks of anguish and protest and of fighting against an unjust regime,'' said Deng Ajak by telephone from London, where he is secretary general of the Sudan Commission for Human Rights. Mr. Deng has read excerpts of ''Long Train'' on the Internet, but has not read the book itself.

Mr. Deng added: ''But when she said in one of her own e-mails to me that she had a brief encounter of dating Osama bin Laden, I said to my colleagues that we need to pull the plug on this one. This could be one of the most impressively spun and choreographed pieces of fiction that one could imagine, or she may be legitimate. That is a big maybe for now.''

Ms. Boof manages simultaneously to seek publicity and to shroud herself in secrecy. Her publisher isn't just obscure; it is curiously absent. Calls taken by an answering machine at the Fullerton, Calif., office of the North African Book Exchange went unanswered. But her book ''Long Train'' does exist.